Memeorandum

April 24, 2006

Please Help Larry Johnson

We are having a bit of an off-site meeting of the Just One Minute regulars over at intel commentator Larry Johnson's blog, and he would welcome more visitors, and more intellectual firepower on his side.

In his comments section Mr. Johnson has made some statements linking the McCarthy and Plame situations that, in my humble opinion, will be hard to sustain. However, Jeff and Jim E could surely help him with his broad themes.

Let's also note that in his comments section Mr. Johnson currently seems to lean towards ad hominem as his primary (also secondary and tertiary) response, but please - let's leave that to the lesser lefties. Our motto - Trogs Rule!

I was hoping for a field trip to a place with tastier fare. BTW he's been riding on that few years at the CIA for lob enough. I take it that's because the press finds quotes from an ex-DOS staffer noot as sexy..Are he and McGovern the only exes in their rolodex? Have they been cut off from google as a cost saving measure?

You know, I'd really like to send his post to NRO media blog to help dispel the notion that Mary McCarthy stalled under Bush because she was regarded suspiciously as a Clinton appointee. The man clearly says she was a bad manager, which seems reason enough for one's managerial career to stall.

But can one be a good source and unhinged all at the same time? The NYTs thinks so, of course....they just don't mention the unhinged part.

I believe that trog is Moronic for troglodyte. I've never actually had occasion to study Moronic but occasional visits to certain sites have given me limited exposure to some common usages. Come to think of it, I doubt that any sentient being has actually studied Moronic. Fluency is probably hereditary - if one member of the family stalk is fluent, all are.

BTW, I admit being surprised about something: Larry Johnson, CIA expert and source that launched a thousand Times disinformation articles had a grand total of four years at CIA? That's about the equivalent of a corporal . . . (not that a corporal isn't necessarily a good source, but that wasn't the impression I got from the stories).

I did post. Then I switched keyboards (the one I used is now sitting in a bucket of bleach). Then I showered and now I'm back. I'll never know from personal observation as to whether or not Mr. Johnson replied.

I still want my merit badge - others may try for the Ranger tab, the cost in bleach and time is too high for me.

The fired official, Mary O. McCarthy, “categorically denies being the source of the leak,” one of McCarthy’s friends and former colleagues, Rand Beers, said Monday after speaking to McCarthy. Beers said he could not elaborate on this denial and McCarthy herself did not respond to a request for comment left by NEWSWEEK on her home answering machine.

If you were looking at the potential for ten years in Stony Lonesome, what would you say? Tricky locution though - what's the difference between being a 'source' and giving 'confirmation'? As someone else mentioned, maybe she's an 'I heard that, too' source.

If Priest said she wasn't her 'source' then I really, really think that a warrant is in order for Ms. Priest's records.

Yet another agency retiree, who has in the past received warning letters from the C.I.A. after occasionally publishing articles without seeking approval, said he had recently gotten a far more strongly worded letter. This one informed him that a file had been opened to document his transgressions that could be forwarded to the Justice Department, he said.

McCarthy's lawyer, Ty Cobb, told NEWSWEEK this afternooon that contrary to public statements by the CIA late last week, McCarthy never confessed to agency interrogators that she had divulged classified information and "didn't even have access to the information" in The Washington Post story in question.

After being told by agency interrogators that she may have been deceptive on one quesiton during a polygraph, McCarthy did acknowledge that she had failed to report contacts with Washington Post reporter Dana Priest and at least one other reporter, said a source familiar with her account who asked not to be identified because of legal sensitivities. McCarthy has known Priest for some time, the source said.

"Mary McCarthy, is an old acquaintance. I hasten to add that I do not consider her a friend. She was my immediate boss in 1988-89 and was instrumental in my decision to leave the CIA and take a job at the State".

Well, I definitely deserve the badge. I've been called sweetheart (I don't think he meant it in a nice way), moron, asshole, AQ operative...that should earn me my badge. All the while taking it on the chin. Never once retaliating with ad homs (not my style, dang it).

I was thinking more of Michael kissing Fredo but your metaphor works a bit better.

There is definitely a noticeable stench of fear hanging in the air. Considering the depth of conviction among the possible conspirators it's very understandable. They will not hang together which may make hanging them separately a bit easier.

Mr Ballard,
If ever ther were a distancing phrase,""Mary McCarthy, is an old acquaintance. I hasten to add that I do not consider her a friend". The qualifier is "hasten",Larry is about to walk by on the other side.

It might be a good idea to cultivate some of the more "fragile ones",rather than attacking them and driving them deeper into the herd.

That Newswek story make Ms. McCarthy out as "small potatoes."
Of course, if the investigators come back and say that it was Jay Rockefeller in the tea room with the curtain rod .. Oh sorry for the "Clue" digression.

The backtracking is interesting. Her access to the information must be a matter of record.

It would be unusual that she would be fired (she did not resign like Libby did) without corroborating evidence. Libby was a political appointee serving at the pleasure of the VP and President. As a civil servant, McCarthy has certain appeal rights. Is there any information that she is pursuing them?

I think the walk back is just a PR offensive, and a certain confidence if she "professes" innocence the press will carry her water...which of course they will because I bet many of them are recipients of Mary's leaks.

You mean like you did over the Plame outing? ::grin:: Not bloody likely on my part. I aim to strike while the iron's still hot. She can go to the same location Libby has to go to in order to get her reputation back.

Sue,
If he tried that mode of address with field operatives,he would end up with both legs in casts,they don't like desk jockeys.
He forgets the number one rule,hard men don't talk tough,as for Little Charlie,he definitely is a leg end.

Having been labeled here as the original host of the orifice that has medium-sized mammals flying out of it, I am qualified to tell you,

windansea,

that you are proof that a sense of humor in wingers is inherited on a single gene, and that if through some unfortunate inbreeding one of you gets a double copy, well, too much of a good thing and all that, what?

THE MCCARTHY INVESTIGATION -- WHAT NEXT? [Byron York]
NBC News is reporting that Mary McCarthy, while acknowledging that she had contacts with the Washington Post's Dana Priest, denies revealing any classified information. What now? Well, using the template established in the Plame/Fitzgerald investigation, the next steps seem clear. First, the Justice Department will begin an investigation. Then, McCarthy, like Lewis Libby, Karl Rove, and many White House staffers, will sign a waiver releasing Priest from any pledge of confidentiality. Next, prosecutors will subpoena Priest to tell prosecutors what McCarthy told her. Then, if Priest argues that McCarthy's waiver was coerced, McCarthy will assure Priest that it was given willingly and give her blessing to Priest's testimony. And then Priest, like Judith Miller, Matthew Cooper, and others, will -- under oath -- tell prosecutors precisely what McCarthy said.

Rick ... way up on the thread ... I want my merit badge too ... I posted, but like you, I didn't stick around long enough to see if there was a response and I have no intention of going back to find out.

After reading the Times article this morning, I have to say that I am shocked and that doesn't happen easily. I'm shocked at how many former CIA agents are working against the United States over in foreign countries. I went to bed thinking that here I am, a person who follows this stuff pretty closely, and yet I had no idea that certain stories that seemed weird at the time really were weird because it was our own agents making things weird in order to help our enemies. Actually, more than shocked, I felt sick.

I'm going to let you guys have the merit badges. Last time I asked LJ to clarify one of his lies, I got a personal e-mail (so he didn't have to answer on screen I guess). Now that's both 'spooky' and scary! I still peek out my window as I visit mootbat sites for someone in dark glasses after midnite!

Me too. He likes the personal email thingy. Mine was full of 'you moron' and 'buy a clue' and 'what kind of an idiot are you'. And I swear, all I asked him was did he still believe Iraq had something to do with the Oklahoma City Bombing, as he stated when Jayna Davis' book came out. ::grin::

BRING IT ON FOLKS. THANKS FOR THE EXPOSURE. TRULY. YOU ARE THE BEST. FACED WITH SUCH BRILLIANT LOGICIANS I'M JUST IN AWE OF THE BRILLIANT MENTAL FIREPOWER YOU BRING TO THESE TOPICS. ONE THINKS OF YOU AND ALL ONE CAN SAY IS, "SALIERI".

Think about who has been the most vocal against the NSA surviellance of calls to and from terrorists. Who knew that a whole portion of the ex-CIA employee list and even some still there have close ties to terroists outside their official agency or spy duties?

You mean like you did over the Plame outing? ::grin:: Not bloody likely on my part. I aim to strike while the iron's still hot. She can go to the same location Libby has to go to in order to get her reputation back.